<p>I am currently a senior in high school, and recently began sending off applications off to my choices of colleges. All throughout high school, I have had a strong desire to go to the University of Washington Seattle campus. Due to my dad losing his job, and my family facing an unexpected financial struggle, I had a rough period of time in high school where my GPA dropped below the 3.0 line for two semesters. My life has just recently began to pick back up, and since then, my GPA has not dropped below 3.85.</p>
<p>GPA:
Un-Weighted - 3.4
Weighted - 3.8</p>
<p>SATs:
First attempt - 2020 (I may try again, as I didn't study)</p>
<p>Classes taken (or have registered for senior year):
Math - Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus, AP Statistics
Science - Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics
Language - Honors Language (freshman), Honors Language (sophomore), AP Language, AP Literature
Social Studies - Honors World Studies, US History, AP Government & Politics, Global Issues
Foreign Language - Spanish (three years)
Fine Arts: Visual Communications (two years)
Electives: Computer Repair (two years), Drafting and Engineering, Electronics</p>
<p>Leadership:
SkillsUSA Chapter Officer - was Secretary my junior year, and am currently the club president. Sophomore year, I went to State and placed third for the computer maintenance competition. Junior year, I placed first in State, continued to Nationals, and ended up placing 5th.
ASB - I serve on the Executive Board as the first A/V Tech. The ASB advisor created the position to ensure that I would join.
Community service - I have near 300 hours of community service with projects ranging from food bank to retirement home work.</p>
<p>Athletics:
Football - played freshman year, but had to quit due to a back injury
Track - have been running since 6th grade
Cross country - ran in 10th grade, but gave up due to work</p>
<p>Work:
Past - I ran a small computer repair "business" in my community from 7th to 10th grade.
Current - I have been an intern as a network technician in my school district's IT department since sophomore year.</p>
<p>Miscellaneous:
- I have been working with computers since around the age of 10, built my first computer around 13, and learned basic Java and HTML freshman year.
- I've spent the last year fixing up a 1988 BMW, and have almost completely re-built the entire car, sans the engine, at this point.
- I have recently gotten back into reading as a hobby, and have been blowing through books like crazy.</p>
<p>I feel as if, being a middle-upper class white male interested in the field of economics and/or engineering, I might be facing just a bit of strong competition. I know that my low GPA is NOT helping me in any way, but there has been a steady improvement since sophomore year. I was just curious as to what my chances of getting accepted were at the moment, and what I could do to improve them. The University of Washington has been my dream school for YEARS now, and I would do just about anything to make it in.</p>
<p>If anyone has ANY suggestions or advice, please let me know!</p>